Big Media Needs a Good Spanking

By Joe Alton, on January 12th, 2017

Press conferences are usually pretty staid affairs, with long policy questions and longer policy answers. You might also hear some ridiculous fluff questions, such as the NY Times’ Jeff Zeleny’s hero-worship query to Obama in 2009:

“During these first 100 days, what has surprised you the most about this office? Enchanted you the most from serving in this office? Humbled you the most? And troubled you the most?”

No more. In a raucous and contentious press conference, Donald Trump was reminded why it had been a long time since the last question and answer session with the deranged and bitter media. The President-Elect can only expect more of the same for the duration of his time in office.

Faced with unsubstantiated and lurid accusations from Buzzfeed, and parroted by CNN, Trump was understandably furious. Unlike more polite souls in similar circumstances (George W. Bush comes to mind), you might say that the Donald has declared war on the media. That is, if war had not already been declared by them.

The hysteria on the part of the press surrounding Donald Trump’s election has become increasingly shrill. Like most of the mainstream media, Buzzfeed is a hotbed of Democrat activists. Unfair and unbalanced, they jumped at the opportunity to publish anything anti-Trump without bothering with due diligence, verification, and other obstacles to getting clicks on their site.

In the document, Michael Cohen, a lawyer for the President-Elect, is said to have met with the Russians in Prague, Czech Republic, to discuss strategies to use against Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. One small problem: Mr. Cohen has never been to Prague, as evidenced by his passport.

The issue with the authoritarian press is that they believe, in their heart of hearts, that they are better than you. They know what’s best for the country. Your silly vote to put Donald Trump in the White House was ignorant. Your mindset is mean-spirited and intolerant, and the media will mean-spiritedly and intolerantly remind you of this for as long as any Republican occupies the presidency. Notice that I don’t say Donald Trump; any Republican will always be in the crosshairs, and any Democrat will be promoted and protected by the press.

Donald Trump is not going to make you swoon from his soaring rhetoric. We just finished with an administration loaded with that, and nothing more. Despite President Obama’s feel-good dissertations, there is in no place in the world where we have better relations than before he was elected. The press was complicit in fawning over this man, and should face the consequences.

It’s time for Big Media to realize that they aren’t the arbiters of what we get to hear or think. Gallup, in a recent poll, shows that only 32% of Americans take news broadcasts at their word these days, down from more than 50% in past polls. There’s a reason for that: The inability of most journalists to show any fairness, or even respect, in their coverage.

I would think that the President-Elect’s team can determine who attends his press conferences. If some members of the press, like Jim Acosta, cannot contain themselves at these events, they should not be invited. I’ll bet that there are a lot of news outlets without a press pass that would be glad to show common courtesy to Mr. Trump. Perhaps it’s time to give these guys a shot at asking the questions.